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Alcoholic drinks from Myanmar

Lout khu (Kachin rice spirit)

Lout khu is a rice spirit distilled in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, in stills kept in small shelters. It may be flavoured with caterpillar fungus or infused with bees. The public sources describe the drink only briefly, and no process details were found.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Lout khu itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Khaung ye / hsan khaung ye (Myanmar rice beer), the closest documented alcoholic drinks ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Lout khu.

Short entryAlcoholic drinks

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo published recipe or amounts.
Rice[cornell2022]
Caterpillar fungus or beesOptional flavourings[cornell2022]

Total time across the steps of Khaung ye / hsan khaung ye (Myanmar rice beer): 7.1 days

Start
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What changes: Sorghum boils until tender, then rice cooks with it until the water is gone

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Khaung ye / hsan khaung ye (Myanmar rice beer)
Boil the sorghum, add the rice and cook until dry
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: cooked grain.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Lout khu is a rice spirit distilled in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, in stills kept in small shelters. It may be flavoured with caterpillar fungus or infused with bees. The public sources describe the drink only briefly, and no process details were found.

What makes this one different

Lout khu is a distilled spirit, a boundary case past the distillation step; its infusions of caterpillar fungus or bees set it apart.

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [cornell2022] Cornell M. 2022, Traditional brewing in Myanmar: an amazing heritage (review of Corbin 2022, Heritage Drinks of Myanmar), Zythophile, photo caption and text (read via a web.archive.org copy)web